MURFREESBORO – Gov. Bill Haslam said today that he opposes the idea of Volkswagen recognizing the United Auto Workers as the bargaining unit for its Chattanooga plant in spite of workers rejecting the union in a vote in February.

“As I’ve said, I think democracy matters,” Haslam said in response to a question from The Tennessean during a visit to Murfreesboro. “We had a vote, it was a clear vote, and the workers said, ‘At this plant we choose not to have the UAW represent us.’ I think that should mean something. I have said from the beginning I have questions about the card-check process.”

An anti-union group opposing the UAW attempts to organize the Volkswagen plant said Monday that the automaker might be planning to throw out the election results and recognize the union anyway, despite workers rejecting representation by a nearly 54-46 percent margin.

The group, called the Center for Worker Freedom, said that “Volkswagen is considering disregarding the election results and accepting the authorization cards the union claims to have collected last year, even though the alleged cards have never been examined by a third party and a number of VW workers have complained to labor authorities that they had been tricked or coerced into signing such cards.”

A challenge to the February vote, 712-626 against the union, was filed by the UAW with the National Labor Relations Board, and a hearing is set for April 21. The union claims that outside influence from groups such as the Center for Worker Freedom and Republican politicians led to the UAW defeat and has asked for a new vote.

Haslam said he believes that Volkswagen is waiting for the election issue to be resolved before making a decision on where it would build a new midsize SUV that Chattanooga is being considered for. VW has said the decision would be between Chattanooga and a plant in Mexico.

The governor said the state is ready to resume negotiations with the automaker over an incentives package for the plant expansion whenever Volkswagen is ready.

“We’ve actually been real clear with Volkswagen that we’re ready to sit down and talk whenever you guys want to re-engage. So we’re waiting for that to happen.”

Haslam also said that he doesn’t oppose Volkswagen employees having a works council at the plant, which the UAW had promised to institute if the workers chose to accept the union.

“The issue is with U.S. law, which says you can’t have a works council without being represented, in their case, by the UAW, which is a whole different set of issues.”

But he said he doesn’t believe U.S. labor law would allow the Chattanooga VW workers to set up their own independent union — not affiliated with the UAW — in order to form a works council, which Volkswagen has in most of its other plants worldwide.

Volkswagen did not respond to a request for comment about the Center for Worker Freedom report that the company might now go along with card check, and the UAW would not say whether that option was in the works.

“There are a lot of options, and we are continuing to have discussions with VW to find the best solution for all involved,” Gary Casteel, director of UAW District 8 in Lebanon, said earlier.